What’s Inside This Buddha Statue?
Dear Students and Friends,
When we invite a Buddha statue home, it is customary to have the statue filled with mantras, blessed items from lamas, and other holy objects. However, has it ever occurred to you that a mummified monk could also have been inserted into a Buddha statue? Doctors did a CT scan on this statue and found that although it looks just like any Buddha statue from the outside, on the inside was a monk mummified 1,000 years ago.
Upon death, great practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism are known to enter the death meditative state known as Tukdam. During tukdam, although the person’s body has ceased to function, the physical body however does not decay nor give out a putrefied smell, as the consciousness (or mind) of the person is still within the body, in deep meditation. One may think that perhaps it is the weather conditions that slowed down the degeneration of the body; however, various masters from different countries with different climates have entered tukdam and displayed the same results.
This form of death meditation typically lasts for a day to even a month – some may be in this state for a shorter duration, while others have been known to remain in tukdam for over a week. During this time, much care is taken not to disturb the body and silence is observed. Only when the head droops and the physical body begins to show signs of rigor mortis are the funerary rites observed, as that is when the consciousness of the person has left the physical body.
I thought I’d share a little about tukdam and also this article about the 1,000 year old mummy. Do read the article below and share with me your thoughts.
Tsem Rinpoche
CT Scan of 1,000-Year-Old Buddha Statue Reveals Mummified Monk Hidden Inside
A special examination recently occurred in the Meander Medical Center. A nearly 1,000 year old mummy received a CT scan and had samples taken with an endoscope. Several hospital employees helped with this unique project in their free time.
The leader of this study is the Amersfoort resident Erik Bruijn, an expert in the field of Buddhist art and culture and guest curator at the World Museum in Rotterdam. Gastrointestinal and liver doctor Reinoud Vermeijden and radiologist Ben Heggelman received the Chinese mummy at the hospital for internal examination on September 3rd. The mummy was part of the Mummies exhibition earlier this year and dates from the 11th or 12th century.
The mummy is the mummified body of the Buddhist master Liuquan, who belonged to the Chinese Meditation School. The discovery of the mummy is of great cultural significance. It is not only the only one of its kind, but also the only Chinese Buddhist mummy that is available for scientific research in the West.
With an endoscope made specially available by Surgical Technologies in Didam, Vermeijden took samples of a yet unidentified material and examined the thoracic and abdominal cavities. He made a spectacular discovery – among all kinds of rotten material in the space where there had once been organs, he found paper scraps that are printed with ancient Chinese characters. Heggelman took a CT scan that beautifully shows how the mummy looks inside and took samples of bone material for DNA testing.
The research will be published in the monograph that will appear on Master Liuquan. The mummy has since been taken to Hungary where it will be on display at the National Museum of Natural History in Budapest until May 2015.
[Source: http://www.nltimes.nl/2014/12/09/1000-year-old-chinese-mummy-gets-ct-scan-amersfoort/]
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Reread about this article of a 1000 years old mummified monk. Amazing discovery….its a break through where researchers can even do a CT Scan on mummy. That’s great they then discovered this was the Buddhist master Liuquan who has appeared as doing long meditation. Such an attained master indeed.
Thank you Rinpoche for this interesting sharing and a short explanation about tukdam
Tukdam meditation is one of the highest form of meditation in Buddhism practice. When death occurs, the body does not decay or rot but continues to poise. While this is a well known facts among Buddhist practitioners, it is considered rare and new to the scientific world. This discovery is a good opportunity for the scientist to establish this fact better. Thank you, Rinpoche, for this sharing.
This is really an amazing and interesting discovery. Thank you Rinpoche and blog team for sharing this article on the mummified body of the Buddhist master Liuquan, who belonged to the Chinese Meditation School. ??
Amazing discovery, mummified monk of a 1,000 years old. It shows how powerful the mind is when we are able to control it. This is surely a highly attained monk who can control his mind and body and went into a long meditation. Incredible that the body can be preserved for so long.
Amazing…….Researchers at the Drents Museum in the Netherlands made a shocking discovery. A CT Scan of 1,000-Year-Old Buddha statue reveals mummified monk hidden inside from the 11th or 12th century. These amazing discovery was of the mummy is of great cultural significance and was Buddhist master Liuquan.These was the first break through for scientific research in the West.Sitting in the lotus position, the 1000-year-old mummy fits within the statue.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this post.
Dear Rinpoche,
Thank you very much for sharing,this is indeed unique but mummies of such monk’s should be kept in places of worship or purified environment’s rather than to be kept as display items in museums.
Monk’s should request these scientist’s to return the mummy to it’s rightful place of rest.
Regards,
Interesting to know about mummified monk and store in a Buddha statue. Some of the monks who are highly attained can determine the timing of their life through meditation. Not only that their body can be preserved.
Thanks you Rinpoche for sharing this articel.
Actually it is only after I practise Tibetan Buddhism that I learnt of Buddha statues being filled with holy items, mantras, etc and consecrated to bless the practitioners. I have seen Thai monks who passed and preserved in meditation poses in temples but this is the first that I learnt of a monk in a Buddha statue. He must be attained for the people to revere him with this form of respect. It is wonderful how modern science can now make these discoveries to recorded for posterity that our future generation may learn. Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this interesting article with us.
I do wonder what made someone insert a mummy into a statue? I am certain beings who are holy and altruistic when they were alive will benefit sentient beings. So if the mummy was a buddhist master, I do think have a statue with his mummy will benefit.
When I clicked on to this blog post to read what could be in this Buddha statue, I did not expect that there would be a mummified body in the statue.
I expected something a little less extreme and was quite shocked to see that they found a mummified body in it.
The state of Tukdam and being able to enter deep meditation despite being unable to function physically has really amazed me.
Lamas and monks who are able to achieve this state just goes to show how much they have achieved and how attained they are.
It was really interesting to read about this shocking discovery.
Thank you Rinpoche for the sharing this fantastic discovery inside an ancient buddha statue.
Buddhist master Liuquan,must be an highly attained Buddhist master to be given such honoured to be mummified in order to preserve his relic totally intact.
May this discovery provide us better insights into ancient buddhist practice and customs.If the relic is preserved without any forms of embalming agents.Then it will prove that the highly attained master could control his vassal even after death….
Amazing! I wonder why the monk mummified himself in the statue. Is it for certain practice?
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing on “Tukdam” for Tibetan lamas into clear light meditation. It has strengthened my faith on the lamas and the practice that Rinpoche has been giving to me.
I’ve read plenty of these accounts mainly from Buddhism books. However, to witness these Lamas in Tukdam in these days through pictures and video makes it rather more amazing. This is part of the attainments that one should aspire to achieve, not so much in a ‘magical way’ to attract people in practicing Buddhism but rather to provide a concrete proof that it can be done/achieved. Through controlling one’s death, we are able to benefit people continuously, without being thrown into the ocean of samsara, not knowing where to go and the worst part is being helplessness. Instead of benefiting others,we will bring more troubles later. I’ve read an article in Rinpoche’s blog about a Lama who was in Tukdam as well previously, here https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/science-mysteries/living-body-of-hambo-lama-itygelov.html. Enjoy and Thank you Rinpoche for highlighting yet another article that Buddhism is real and the goal to become a Buddha can be achieved.
incredible! I have seen many monks that are mummified. One of the mummified monks that have always been amazing to me were the ones in Japan, when the monks train their bodies in preparation for mummification even before their death.
@Sarah, are you referring to Sokushinbutsu for the Japanese tradition? I saw a few pictures in the link below. Interesting to see that.
http://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-ancient-traditions/sokushinbutsu-and-ancient-japanese-monks-mummified-to-death-012938
Last time I only know about the Thai tradition that the body of the monk are kept in good condition after their death. 🙂